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I’m looking at the GS release calendar and noticing that starting in June, the Sandbox and Production org updates are now aligning with one other on the same dates.  Why is this changing?

I understand that NXT does not provide an opt-out capability, and it seems like with the change to the release calendar Gainsight may be trying to move to a no-opt out scenario.   

 

That can be problematic for large enterprise organizations.

 

I have my org opted out of Production updates because we need time to evaluate any new features to determine:

  1.  if there will be any immediate impact to our current processes - if so, we need to make plans to address those changes and adjust our priorities accordingly before pushing the update to Production
  2. if there are any new features that will be immediately available to end users (outside of Admin control to enable/disable) upon update.  If there are (such as the Email from Timeline and Slack Notifications in the latest 6.14 update) we need time to test and become familiar with those features so we can
    1. Provide our users with release notice of new features
    2. Be prepared to update documentation and provide enablement on the features
    3. Be prepared to support the features.

These are very important steps when you are working in an organization supporting 2000+ users.  I have had instances in my previous roles where new features were released that, had we not been opted out, would have broken existing processes and/or introduced significant confusion to my end users.

With the May 6.14 release (which we have not yet rolled into production) the Slack Notifications piece was auto-updated in my org because it was an MDA/backend update of which I am not able to opt out.

Do you know how embarrassing and frustrating it is to be notified by end users of the existence of a new feature and questions about how it works?  It undermines trust and confidence.

Advance sandbox releases and opt-out functionality is very important.

 

 

Hi Jeff, 

Thanks for sharing your concerns with us. With regard to the Slack enhancement, we have modified our patch release approval process to hopefully avoid communication gaps like that moving forward.

Customers who are on SFDC edition and currently opt-out from automatic releases will experience no changes, as their orgs are updated based on a support ticket request.

These changes are an important part of our efforts to Simplify our product and customer interactions with our releases. We’ve heard from customers that the release frequency was too high; and previously there was also a substantial gap between the NXT and Salesforce edition releases, which is reduced with the new cadence. This enables us to communicate more clearly and timely with all of our customers. We’ve also built a strong track record of success with updating NXT orgs in this manner (simultaneous Sandbox and Production org updates) over the past 12+ months.

There are impacts to engineering when release cycles are changed, so we are moving to 6 weeks and then after a period of time, we’ll evaluate if the frequency reduction is well received or if we need to revisit. 

FYI @maksim_ovsyannikov 

+1 to this as my primary “double-edged-sword” is the delivery of new features without enough time to evaluate and assimilate into our processes and current initiatives (if impacted)...

“With great power comes great responsibility” 

As an Admin, I would like the ability to review all platform updates for feasibility and process impact. 

Bonus points

Updates can be compartmentalized and deployed as packages/components by the Admin

MEGA Bonus Points

Updates in the future are deployed in a similar manner as to what is employed via the vault??? What?? Yessss!!!

Thanks for the backup @keith_mattes !  I knew I wasn’t  the only one.

@lila_meyer 

I am on SFDC version now, so it doesn’t immediately impact me - but there are features coming to NXT that we need. Lack of this opt-out functionality and advance access to updates is of great concern to me and should be to any effective operations function.

PS - if I am not mistaken, Keith is on NXT.

I definitely would second or third your opinions. Release management in big enterprises is a challenge and teams need to be able to validate new features as well as get ahead on change management. 

The bigger the team of CSMs using Gainsight, the more challenging change management can be. And in large enterprises, change management can be managed by a separate team and they need lead time. 

For whatever reasons, CSMs often don’t keep up on their Gainsight emails and generally don’t like to be surprised when they login to Gainsight. Many changes don’t impact a CSM but when it does, it can be painful for the admins to navigate. 

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